This invention relates to a handheld type electronic device, more particularly to a handheld type electronic device which include two housings that are foldable toward each other.
In order to facilitate carrying by users, electronic devices are constantly being reduced in size and weight, especially for handheld type electronic devices, such as mobile phones, palm-tops, compact type computers, personal digital assistants, etc. Currently, one way to reduce the size of a handheld type device is to provide more than one housing that contains an operating circuit. That is, a housing which is rotatable and which is foldable onto another housing is provided to thereby reduce the size of the handheld electronic device in a folded state (i.e. the two housings are stacked, with one top of the other). When it is desired to operate the electronic device, it is only necessary to pull the two stacked housings apart from each other. Such kind of handheld type electronic device includes the flip-type mobile phone illustrated in FIG. 1.
However, in using this kind of handheld type electronic devices, the operating circuits concealed within the two separate housings have to be able to communicate with each other. Technical means adopted to enable the operating circuits within the two housing in these handheld type electronic devices to electrically connect with each other include the use of cables, switches, flexible print circuits (FPC), etc. For the sake of better understanding, several conventional means are disclosed and described in the succeeding paragraphs. Since these conventional means are substantially the same in construction when applied to these handheld type electronic devices, for the sake of illustration, mobile phones employing these conventional means are set forth hereinbelow as examples. It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that these conventional means may also be applied to other flips of handheld electronic devices. FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a conventional flip-type mobile phone that uses a cable. The mobile phone 10 has a first housing 100, a second housing 101 and a hinge 102 which enables the second housing 101 to rotatably connect with one side of the first housing 100. The first housing 100 has a keypad portion 103, a microphone 104 and an operating circuit (not shown) built in the first housing 100. The second housing 101 has an earphone 105. To establish electrical connection between the operating circuit within the first housing 100 with the earphone 105 in the second housing 101, a cable 106 is required to pass through the hinge 102 between the two housings 100, 101 so that the two ends thereof are respectively and electrically connected to the operating circuit and the earphone 104. However, as the hinge 102 will rotate when the second housing 101 rotates relative to the first housing 100, the cable 106 passing through the hinge 102 will be pulled and twisted as a result. Hence, after a period of time of use, poor electrical contact between the cable 106 and the operating circuit or earphone 105 is likely to result, thereby shortening the service life of the mobile phone.
FIG. 2 shows another conventional flip-type mobile phone 11 that utilizes a switch. The mobile phone 11 also includes a first housing 110, a second housing 111 and a hinge 112 that pivots the first housing 110 to the second housing 111 and that enable the two housings 110, 111 to rotate relative to each other. The first housing 110 has a keypad portion 113, a liquid display 114, a speaker portion 115, and an operating circuit 116. The second housing 111 has a microphone 117. The hinge 112 of the mobile phone 11 includes a first pivot shaft 1121 disposed in the middle of the side of the junction of the first housing 110 and the second housing 111, and second pivot shafts 1122 disposed on the second housing at both sides of the first pivot shaft 1121. In the mobile phone 11, a switch 118 for electrically connecting the operating circuits 116 which are respectively disposed in the two housings 110, 111 includes a first connector 1180 disposed in one of the second pivot shafts 1122 and moved with the second pivot shafts 1122, and a switch 1181 with a rotary connector, which is disposed in the first pivot shaft 1121 and which abuts against the first connector 1180. As shown in FIG. 3, the switch 1181 with the rotary connector includes an L-shaped mounting member 1182, an insulating plate 1183 positioned on the mounting member 1182, two contact portions 1184 juxtaposed and positioned on the surface of the insulating plate 1183, a second connector 1185 abutting against the surface of the insulating plate 1183 that is provided with the contact portions 1184 and rotatable relative thereto, and a substantially rectangular metal frame 1186 sleeved on the second connector portion 1185. The two contact portions 1184 each have one end portion exposed from the surface of the insulating plate 1183 to form an elastic arm, and another end which is bent downwardly to extend through the mounting member 1182. The second connector 1185 has a cylindrical retaining member 1187 formed from an insulating material, a male connecting terminal 1188 mounted one surface of the retaining member 1187, and movable contact portion 1189 formed on the other surface of the retaining member 1187 and electrically connected to the male connecting terminal 1188. The movable contact portion 1189 has an area smaller than that of the surface of the retaining member 1187 such that the male connecting terminal 1188 will be electrically connected to the contact portion 1184 via the movable contact portion 1189 only when the retaining member 1187 is at a predetermined rotational angle. The first connector 1180 has a female connecting terminal to match the male connecting terminal 1188 of the second connector 1185. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 2, when the first and second housings 110, 111 are interconnected via the hinge 112, the second connector 1185 will fit into the first connector 1180 so that the connecting terminals 1188 of both of them are electrically connected to each other and achieve linking-up. The connecting terminals of the first connector 1180 are further connected electrically to the microphone 117, and the ends of the contact portions 1184 which extend through the mounting member 1182 are also electrically connected via lead wires 119 to the operating circuit 116, whereby the angle of the mobile phone in an opened state during use can be set to be a predetermined angle of the movable contact portion 1189 which connects electrically with the contact portions 1184. As such, when the mobile phone 11 is opened, the first pivot shaft 1121 rotates relative to the second pivot shaft 1122 so as to bring the movable contact portion 1189 of the second connector 1185 to move along the insulating plate 1183 and to connect electrically with the contact portion 1184 upon rotating about a predetermined angle, thereby permitting electrical connection between the microphone 117 and the operating circuit 116. In addition, the switch 118 is generally used as a power switch. When the operating circuit 116 detects electrical connection of the switch 118 (i.e., the mobile phone 11 is opened to the predetermined angle so that the second connector 1185 is electrically connected to the contact portions 1184), the mobile phone is automatically switched on; otherwise, the mobile phone is switched off, thereby achieving the object of user convenience. However, the switch 1181 with the rotary connector also has the disadvantage of limited service life as encountered in the aforesaid mobile phone 10. This is because when the mobile phone 11 is in use, the movable contact portion 1189 will rub against the contact portions 1184 due to rotation thereof to result in wear, and poor contact between the movable contact portion 1189 and the contact portions 1184 often results after several times of use.
Further, reference is made to FIGS. 4 and 5, which show a mobile phone 12 that employs a soft bus (disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,011,699). The mobile phone 12 also includes a first housing 121 having a keypad portion 1211 and an operating circuit (not shown), a second housing 122 having a speaker 1221, a display 1222 and an operating circuit 1223 (see FIG. 5), and a hinge member 123 that pivots the second housing 122 to one side of the first housing 121. The hinge member 123 includes a first pivot shaft 1231 disposed on one side of the junction of the second housing 122 and the first housing 121 in a middle position, two second pivot shafts 1232 disposed on the first housing 121 at both sides of the first pivot shaft 1231, and shaft 1234 insertable via an opening 1233 in the first pivot shaft 1231 into the first pivot shaft 1231 to be in tight fit with the first pivot shaft 1231. In this mobile phone 12, to enable electrical connection of the operating circuit 1223 in the second housing 122 to the operating circuit in the first housing 121, a flexible print circuit 1224 for signal transmission is disposed to extend from one side of the operating circuit 1223, and an open slot 1235 is provided in the first pivot shaft 1231 adjacent to a mounting shaft 1234. The shaft 1234 is provided with a shaft slot 1236, and an open slot 1237 is provided in the first housing 121 to correspond to the shaft slot 1236. As such, the flexible print circuit 1224 is extended, in sequence, through the open slot 1235 in the first pivot shaft 1231, the opening 1233 in the first pivot shaft 1231, the shaft slot 1236 in the shaft 1234, and the open slot 1237 in the first housing 121 to thereby establish electrical connection between the operating circuits in the first housing 121 and the second housing 122. However, when the second housing 122 rotate relative to the first housing 121, as the shaft 1234 will rotate relative to the second pivot shaft 1232, the flexible print circuit 1224 which shuttles around the hinge member 123 will be pulled and twisted so that the poor contact problem associated with the aforesaid conventional connecting members will also arise to limit the service life of the mobile phone 12.
In the aforesaid conventional flip-type mobile phones 10, 11, 12, the occurrence of poor contact in the circuit components 106, 118, 1224 electrically connecting the operating circuits respectively disposed in the two housings is mainly due to co-rotation with the pivot shafts 102, 112, 123 and consequent movement therewith. Therefore, if the circuit components of the operating circuits in the two housings can be bridged so as not to rotate with the pivot shafts and not to be moved therewith, the occurrence of poor contact between the circuit components and the operating circuits resulting from repeated operations can be avoided, thereby resolving the problems encountered in the prior art and prolonging the service life of electronic devices.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a handheld electronic device that can achieve stable electrical connection between electronic system components respectively disposed in two housing thereof.
Accordingly, a handheld type electronic device of this invention includes first and second housings accommodating first and second electronic system components therein, a rotary device and an electrical connector. The rotary device includes a pivoting portion and a receiving portion. The pivoting portion is disposed on one side of the second housing and is rotatably connected to a corresponding side of the first housing. The electrical connector includes an insulating casing which has a plurality of terminal channels disposed therein to receive terminals, each of the terminals having at least one first contact portion and at least one second contact portion to respectively and electrically connect with the second electronic system component and the first electronic system component, the electrical connector being disposed in the receiving portion of the rotary device and being confined within the first housing such that, when the second housing rotates relative to the first housing via the pivoting portion of the rotary device, the electrical connector which is confined within the first housing will not rotate therewith